Advancing unsteady bluff body aerodynamics: applications to elite cycling. Delivering a better understanding of unsteady wakes has real potential to further our future capabilities of reducing bluff body parasitic drag. The national benefit derived from this project is the advancement of knowledge of a complex fluid mechanics problem, with secondary benefits arising from the specific and practical application to sports aerodynamics. By better understanding the wake structure and its interaction ....Advancing unsteady bluff body aerodynamics: applications to elite cycling. Delivering a better understanding of unsteady wakes has real potential to further our future capabilities of reducing bluff body parasitic drag. The national benefit derived from this project is the advancement of knowledge of a complex fluid mechanics problem, with secondary benefits arising from the specific and practical application to sports aerodynamics. By better understanding the wake structure and its interaction with a locally oscillating bluff body this knowledge can feed into the field of active flow control in the transport sector. The potential for emissions mitigation by lowering aerodynamic losses in the ground transportation section through active aerodynamic control is significant.Read moreRead less
Why is the photosynthetic CO2-fixing enzyme, Rubisco, so inefficient? Dissection of the catalytic chemistry by computational simulation and experimental testing. Fixation of CO2 by the enzyme Rubisco during photosynthesis produces organic compounds which feed all life. Despite this critical role, Rubisco catalyses its reaction sluggishly and, worse, discriminates poorly between CO2 and O2, leading to useless products. Our combined expertise equips us to analyse Rubisco's mechanism using quantum- ....Why is the photosynthetic CO2-fixing enzyme, Rubisco, so inefficient? Dissection of the catalytic chemistry by computational simulation and experimental testing. Fixation of CO2 by the enzyme Rubisco during photosynthesis produces organic compounds which feed all life. Despite this critical role, Rubisco catalyses its reaction sluggishly and, worse, discriminates poorly between CO2 and O2, leading to useless products. Our combined expertise equips us to analyse Rubisco's mechanism using quantum-chemical methods and then test predictions experimentally. We will capitalise on our previous successful studies of Rubisco by addressing emergent issues which are the keys to understanding catalytic efficiency and CO2/O2 selectivity: the roles of a carbamylated lysine; the way CO2 addition is rendered irreversible; and the spin inversion inherent in O2 addition.Read moreRead less
Aerodynamic interaction of bluff bodies with applications to sports aerodynamics. Numerical modelling and experiments will be combined by this project to characterise the flow and reduce drag on a set of objects in the wake of another object. The Olympic pursuit cycling team is a typical application, with small improvements leading to major competitiveness gains. Findings will also apply to Paralympic team sports, and potentially transportation.
Robust numerical solution of partial differential equations on petascale computer systems with applications to tsunami modelling and plasma physics. The project will apply new mathematical ideas to exploit the unprecedented computational resources provided by the next generation of high performance computers. The resulting techniques and software will form a key component for the science needed to understand the workings of complex dynamical systems, such as tsunamis and fusion reactors.